Chinua Achebe's critique of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was a difficult but important essay for me to read. I started reading Conrad only recently. Heart of Darkness was where I started. I really liked it. I thought the writing was exceptional. The content was unsettling, describing as it does a white European colonial attitude to Africa and its peoples, but I put that down to the time it was written and the prejudices of the time. Achebe gave me a different perspective. Achebe's bottom line is that Conrad was a racist and present day readings of his work need to acknowledge this fact. Achebe's concern isn't to discredit Conrad as a writer but to open up the discussion of his work to include an honest appraisal of its content and stop the blind worship of the man as a literary god.

The other piece in this volume is a 1983 booklet that explores the nature of Nigerian society. Achebe is angry about the corruption and lack of true leadership in the way Nigeria is governed. This maybe isn't a piece of writing for everyone, but I found it really interesting. Over eight chapters, he examines the different reasons why Nigeria has struggled to become the world power its natural resources and intelligent population should have allowed it to be. I found many parallels between the state of Nigerian politics in 1983 and the state of UK politics in 2018. It's about politicians reneging on the basic social contract between citizen and state to act in the best interests of the nation and not in pursuit of individual self-interest. Highly recommended. ( )

Two essays by the always marvelous Chinua Achebe. First he discusses the inherent racism that mars or rather undermines Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' - an issue I had never given a great deal of thought to, having only read Heart once and not really enjoying it as fully as I felt I should have; now my conscience is clear. The bulk of the book is given over to an analysis of Nigeria - the political situation, the struggle against corruption and ill-discipline, and the dire need for reform on every level. Although written a while back, and perhaps all the more depressing because so little seems to have changed, it is fascinating stuff and makes me want to get even further into the issues that Achebe covers. ( )